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Author: Neville

  • The Power of Women in the Face of Climate Change

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    Ariana Childs Graham Headshot
    Become a fanAssociate Director, Reproductive Health, The Aspen Institute

    The Power of Women in the Face of Climate Change

    Posted: 12/05/2014 5:20 pm EST Updated: 12/05/2014 5:59 pm EST

    All eyes are on 2015. It’s a big year for global development. The target date of the Millennium Development Goals is approaching. Representatives of UN Member States, citizen advocates, and technical and policy experts are shaping the sustainable development goals that will make up the new global development agenda. Increasingly climate change sits within the development framework. And after more than 20 years of UN negotiations, a legally binding and universal agreement on global climate action seems to be within grasp.

    But don’t turn your calendar to 2015 just yet. There is important work to be done to ensure the foundation is right for bold action. Representatives from around the globe are gathered in Lima, Peru for the 20th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 10th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 10) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

    What is on the agenda in Lima will set the stage for what will appear on the next universal climate agreement, to be decided in Paris in December 2015. This moment deserves our attention before we move on to the business of 2015. Sustainable development, climate change, population, and reproductive health are interconnected and the solutions must match this complexity. A successful climate action plan must include a strong commitment to women’s empowerment and reproductive health as one of the pillars to address the great climate change and environmental challenges of our generation.

    The reality is that women are disproportionately impacted by climate change and need to be at the center of this conversation. For example, women spend more and more time collecting water due to changing weather patterns, like drought and flooding. When women are spending two to four hours collecting water a day, they have less time to care for their households and participate in the economy. Climate change also affects subsistence agriculture where women are responsible for 60 to 80 percent of this work. Decreased production influences their ability to provide food for their families and communities.

    Solutions to reduce inequality, foster sustainable development and mitigate climate change need to equally involve women. One such solution is supporting women and girls in their right to decide the timing and the spacing of pregnancies as well as family size. This step increases maternal and child survival rates, increases capacity to participate in local economies and fosters resilience in the face of environmental changes. The benefits for women and girls as well as their families and communities are indeed numerous.

    Globally there are 222 million women with an unmet need for family planning. Research from the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund, among others, indicates that some of the dramatic benefits of access to quality, voluntary family planning would include decreasing unintended pregnancies by more than two thirds, averting seventy percent of maternal deaths and forty-four percent of newborn deaths, and lowering unsafe abortions by seventy-three percent. Satisfying the unmet need for family planning services contributes to increased education and employment opportunities, especially for women, reducing staggering gender and economic inequalities.

    The blueprint for integrating reproductive health into climate action was set twenty years ago. In Cairo at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, 179 countries agreed that population and development are interconnected.

    Voluntary family planning is an important part of the solution set for sustainable development. When women have the power to plan their families and ensure the survival of their children, they often choose to have fewer children. Slowing population growth is one way to reduce carbon emissions and relieve pressure on the earth and the climate.

    I’ll be tracking the conversation coming out of Lima on sustainable development, climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights. I wish the delegates courage and vision to act boldly. But where there are gaps, we must all be ready to run this last mile.

  • Pinch me MARK GET-UP

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    Mark – GetUp!
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    Dear NEVILLE,

    If you’d said 6 months ago that the worst of the Abbott Budget would fail to pass this year, people would’ve said: you’re dreaming. Well, thank goodness GetUp members dream big, because that’s exactly what we did together.

    The GP co-payment ended the year in political farce, with Liberal MPs asking journalists to update them about the status of their own policy.1 And has anyone heard about the 6 month waiting period for Newstart recently? It quietly dropped off the Senate agenda. Finally, the Senate voted down $100k uni degrees this week, just as Parliament wrapped for the year.

    Still, the Abbott Government refused to let go of its sinking Budget. So GetUp members sent a powerful message this week by gathering with political leaders holding the power to make passage of any Budget measure nearly impossible at a brilliant Budget Bon Voyage event on the steps of Parliament House.

    Amid the media frenzy, we also delivered more than 10,000 ‘Good Riddance!’ Budget farewell postcards from around the country to Prime Minister Abbott.

    Check out this video of the amazing Bon Voyage Budget event that capped off a sensational year of campaigning against the Abbott Budget.

    Click here to watch this video

    The popular backlash we saw over this budget isn’t just about breaking election promises. It’s about breaking the fundamental promise of a fair go for all Australians.

    So even as Minister Pyne was trying to revive his battered education bill, GetUp members were joined outside with leaders from Labor, the Greens and Palmer United, standing united against $100k degrees and the rest of Abbott’s brutal Budget.

    That show of political unity across the opposition parties is almost unprecedented, and GetUp members brought them together this week in a demonstration of huge political force.
    Although senior Government ministers weren’t there to see it in person, they probably got the message when it appeared on channels 7, 9, Sky News and the ABC.

    Click here to see the event, the extensive coverage and even watch the individual political speeches:

    https://www.getup.org.au/we-did-it

    Getup members did everything possible to stop this Budget. We signed and tweeted. We wrote to our newspapers and called our radio stations. We put up posters and funded TV ads and billboards. But most importantly, we opened our hearts and shared our stories with our leaders.

    So as you go to bed tonight, do it knowing that you helped make a real difference in the lives of millions of Australians. You protected the fair go for young jobseekers, students, pensioners, families, the sick and the disadvantaged — for all of us.

    And if anyone wants to know what GetUp is — who we are — that’s it right there: a community that stands up and fights not just for themselves, but for each other, and something even bigger, called the fair go.

    Thanks for all you do,
    Mark, Lily, Nat & George, for the GetUp team

    References:
    [1] “MPs all at sea over $7 GP co-payment”, The Age, 29 November 2014

  • Pacific Decadal Oscillation Is Widening The Tropical Belt

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    Pacific Decadal Oscillation Is Widening The Tropical Belt

    19.03.2014

    19.03.2014 06:36 Age: 262 days

    Research points to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and anthropogenic pollutants as factors in widening the tropical belt.

    Click to enlarge. A cool-water anomaly known as La Niña occupied the tropical Pacific Ocean throughout 2007 and early 2008. In April 2008, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that while the La Niña was weakening, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)—a larger-scale, slower-cycling ocean pattern—had shifted to its cool phase. This image shows the sea surface temperature anomaly in the Pacific Ocean from April 14–21, 2008. Places where the Pacific was cooler than normal are blue, places where temperatures were average are white, and places where the ocean was warmer than normal are red. The broad area of cooler-than-average water off the coast of North America from Alaska (top center) to the equator is a classic feature of the cool phase of the PDO. The cool waters wrap in a horseshoe shape around a core of warmer-than-average water. (In the warm phase, the pattern is reversed). Unlike El Niño and La Niña, which may occur every 3 to 7 years and last from 6 to 18 months, the PDO can remain in the same phase for 20 to 30 years. The shift in the PDO can have significant implications for global climate. Courtesy: NASA image by Jesse Allen, AMSR-E data processed and provided by Chelle Gentemann and Frank Wentz, Remote Sensing Systems.

     

    By Iqbal Pittalwala, University of California, Riverside

    Recent studies have shown that the Earth’s tropical belt — demarcated, roughly, by the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn — has progressively expanded since at least the late 1970s. Several explanations for this widening have been proposed, such as radiative forcing due to greenhouse gas increase and stratospheric ozone depletion.

    Now, a team of climatologists, led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, posits that the recent widening of the tropical belt is primarily caused by multi-decadal sea surface temperature variability in the Pacific Ocean.  This variability includes the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), a long-lived El Niño-like pattern of Pacific climate variability that works like a switch every 30 years or so between two different circulation patterns in the North Pacific Ocean.  It also includes, the researchers say, anthropogenic pollutants, which act to modify the PDO.

    Study results were published on March 16, 2014, in Nature Geoscience.

    “Prior analyses have found that climate models underestimate the observed rate of tropical widening, leading to questions on possible model deficiencies, possible errors in the observations, and lack of confidence in future projections,” said Robert J. Allen, an assistant professor of climatology in UC Riverside’s Department of Earth Sciences, who led the study.  “Furthermore, there has been no clear explanation for what is driving the widening.”

    Now Allen’s team has found that the recent tropical widening is largely driven by the PDO.

    “Although this widening is considered a ‘natural’ mode of climate variability, implying tropical widening is primarily driven by internal dynamics of the climate system, we also show that anthropogenic pollutants have driven trends in the PDO,” Allen said.   “Thus, tropical widening is related to both the PDO and anthropogenic pollutants.”

    Widening concerns

    Tropical widening is associated with several significant changes in our climate, including shifts in large-scale atmospheric circulation, like storm tracks, and major climate zones. For example, in Southern California, tropical widening may be associated with less precipitation.

    Of particular concern are the semi-arid regions poleward of the subtropical dry belts, including the Mediterranean, the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, southern Australia, southern Africa, and parts of South America. A poleward expansion of the tropics is likely to bring even drier conditions to these heavily populated regions, but may bring increased moisture to other areas.

    Widening of the tropics would also probably be associated with poleward movement of major extratropical climate zones due to changes in the position of jet streams, storm tracks, mean position of high and low pressure systems, and associated precipitation regimes. An increase in the width of the tropics could increase the area affected by tropical storms (hurricanes), or could change climatological tropical cyclone development regions and tracks.

    Belt contraction

    Allen’s research team also showed that prior to the recent (since ~1980 onwards) tropical widening, the tropical belt actually contracted for several decades, consistent with the reversal of the PDO during this earlier time period.

    “The reversal of the PDO, in turn, may be related to the global increase in anthropogenic pollutant emissions prior to the ~ early 1980s,” Allen said.

    Analysis

    Allen’s team analyzed IPCC AR5 (5th Assessment Report) climate models, several observational and reanalysis data sets, and conducted their own climate model experiments to quantify tropical widening, and to isolate the main cause.

    “When we analyzed IPCC climate model experiments driven with the time-evolution of observed sea surface temperatures, we found much larger rates of tropical widening, in better agreement to the observed rate–particularly in the Northern Hemisphere,” Allen said.  “This immediately pointed to the importance of sea surface temperatures, and also suggested that models are capable of reproducing the observed rate of tropical widening, that is, they were not ‘deficient’ in some way.”

    Encouraged by their findings, the researchers then asked the question, “What aspect of the SSTs is driving the expansion?”  They found the answer in the leading pattern of sea surface temperature variability in the North Pacific: the PDO.

    They supported their argument by re-analyzing the models with PDO-variability statistically removed.

    “In this case, we found tropical widening — particularly in the Northern Hemisphere — is completely eliminated,” Allen said.  “This is true for both types of models–those driven with observed sea surface temperatures, and the coupled climate models that simulate evolution of both the atmosphere and ocean and are thus not expected to yield the real-world evolution of the PDO.

    “If we stratify the rate of tropical widening in the coupled models by their respective PDO evolution,” Allen added, “we find a statistically significant relationship: coupled models that simulate a larger PDO trend have larger tropical widening, and vice versa.  Thus, even coupled models can simulate the observed rate of tropical widening, but only if they simulate the real-world evolution of the PDO.”

    Future work

    Next, the researchers will be looking at how anthropogenic pollutants, by modifying the PDO and large scale weather systems, have affected precipitation in the Southwest United States, including Southern California.

    “Future emissions pathways show decreased pollutant emissions through the 21st century, implying pollutants may continue to drive a positive PDO and tropical widening,” Allen said.

    Allen was joined in the study by Mahesh Kovilakam, a postdoctoral researcher working in his lab; and Joel R. Norris at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.

    A grant to Allen from the NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study funded the study.

    Abstract

    The tropical belt has widened by several degrees latitude since 1979, as evidenced by shifts in atmospheric circulation and climate zones. Global climate models also simulate tropical belt widening, but less so than observed. Reasons for this discrepancy and the mechanisms driving the expansion are uncertain. Here we analyse multidecadal variability in tropical belt width since 1950 using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 climate model runs and find that simulated rates of tropical expansion over the past 30 years—particularly in the Northern Hemisphere—are in better agreement with observations than previous models. We find that models driven by observed sea surface temperatures over this interval yield the largest rate of tropical expansion. We link the tropical expansion in the Northern Hemisphere to the leading pattern of sea surface temperature variability in the North Pacific, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. We also find, both from models and observations, that the tropical belt contracted in the Northern Hemisphere from 1950 to 1979, coincident with the reversal of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation trend. In both time periods, anthropogenic aerosols act to modify the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and therefore contribute to the width of the tropical belt. We conclude that tropical expansion and contraction are influenced by multidecadal sea surface temperature variability associated with both the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and anthropogenic aerosols.

    Citation

    Influence of anthropogenic aerosols and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation on tropical belt width by Robert J. Allen, Joel R. Norris & Mahesh Kovilakam published in Nature Geoscience (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2091

    Read the abstract and get the paper here.

    Source

    News release issues by University of California, Riverside, here.

  • THE JOHN JAMES NEWSLETTER NO 34

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    The John James Newsletter 34

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    The John James Newsletter 34

    8 December 2014. 

    Thankyou for your replies. Once a week in this time-poor world is the favourite theme. I will aim for the weekend.

    Guy McPherson on a faith that I share

    “I want to remind us all that we are mortal. That we don’t have long on this planet even if we live to be 100, so we should pursue what we love instead of pursuing the next dollar…. if you love having children, have children and love them, and no matter how long their lives are, make them be years of joy. And that goes for all of us. If that means you want to bring children into the world, who am I to stop you from pursuing what you love? …. Our social responsibility is to live here, here now, and contribute to the happiness of those around us. We are in a hospice where we are serving as witnesses to our own demise, as well as to the demise of all the other species who dying with us. So let’s embrace our joy and love for this living planet, even as we cause it to become a lot less lovely. And bring joy to all those around us.”

    News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity.  – Bill Moyers

    Australian girl inspires the religious leaders 

    of the world to pledge to eradicate slavery by 2020

    http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-girl-grace-forrest-inspires-pope-francis-and-other-world-religious-leaders-to-sign-pledge-to-eradicate-slavery-by-2020-20141202-11ytpw.html

    IS Supply Lines Originate in NATO’s Turkey

    Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle published a video of immense implications – possibly the first national broadcaster in the West to admit that the ISIS is supplied not by “black market oil” or “hostage ransoms” but by billions of dollars worth of supplies carried into Syria across NATO member Turkey’s borders via hundreds of trucks a day. The report confirms what has been reported since 2011 – that Turkey has allowed a torrent in supplies, fighters, and weapons to cross its borders unopposed to resupply ISIS positions inside of Syria.

    http://freewestradio.com/2014/11/breaking-germanys-dw-reports-isis-supply-lines-originate-in-natos-turkey/

    Civil Liberties in Peril Down Under

    Australia has passed sweeping secrecy laws, while police officers in New Zealand recently raided the home of a reporter who had published information regarding a government scandal.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/opinion/civil-liberties-in-peril-down-under.html

    How the IPCC has consistently underestimated climate change.

    As a result we really haven’t explored a world in which the emissions growth rate is as rapid as we have actually seen happen.

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-ipcc-underestimated-climate-change/

    The Permian mass extinction 250 million years ago, also known as “The Great Dying,” was triggered by a massive lava flow in Siberia that led to 6 degrees Celsius. That caused the melting of frozen methane deposits that caused temperatures to skyrocket further. This caused the extinction of 95 percent of all species on the planet were wiped out. Today’s scientific evidence strongly suggests we are in the midst of the same process – only this time it is anthropogenic, and happening exponentially faster than in the Permian.

    In 1981 the US had accumulated what was then an astounding $1 TRILLION in debt. 

    This had taken more than 205 years to accumulate. It would take less than five years to accumulate its second trillion. And as the US government just hit $18 trillion in debt on Friday afternoon, it has taken a measly 403 days to accumulate the most recent.

    http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/five-complete-lies-about-americas-new-18-trillion-debt-level-15661/

    Dealing with despair means dealing with our own grief – it is OUR issue

    In my personal experience this is the Way to overcome despair. As Guy set out earlier, to bring Joy to our friends we need to deal with our own grief and defences. This is the Way to Resilience with the capacity to Love.

    CEFC turns focus to commercial-ready bioenergy for Australia

    The $10 billion clean energy investment vehicle set up by the Labor Gillard government – and since targeted for the scrap heap by the Abbott government – has so far contracted investments of over $900 million in projects with a total value of over $3 billion. Of this, bioenergy investments make up about 10 per cent or nearly $100 million of the total portfolio, and have been focused on waste-to-energy and biogas.

    http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/cefc-turns-focus-commercial-ready-bioenergy-australia-99980

    Russia’s Patience Is Wearing Thin

    With the western propaganda flying thick and heavy, it’s more important than ever to cut through the chaff and learn what we can about the most important geopolitical realignment (and renewed tensions) in recent memory.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40353.htm

    and

    Erdogan hosts Putin to tighten Turkey-Russia alliance 

    Talks were expected to focus on energy cooperation and to discuss how to triple bilateral trade to a target of $100 billion in the next years from $32.7 billion in 2013, a goal some analysts see as wildly over-ambitious. His visit came just over a week after talks between U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and key NATO ally Turkey failed to reach a breakthrough on cooperating over Syria.

    http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-01/279493-erdogan-hosts-putin-to-tighten-turkey-russia-alliance.ashx#sthash.nsKt9B3n.dpuf

    and another report, in video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te289Iel73Q

    and

    On the geo-political implications of cancelling the Southern Gas Route.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40381.htm

    Russia has recently sealed a key deal with Iran to swap Iranian oil for Russian industrial goods. Russia has also agreed to invest heavily in the Iranian nuclear industry. If and when sanctions on Iran are lifted the Europeans will find the Russians already there. Russia has just agreed a massive deal to supply gas to Turkey. Overshadowing these deals are the two huge deals Russia has made to supply gas to China. These show that Russia had made a strategic decision to redirect its energy flow away from Europe. Though it will take time for the full effect to become clear, the consequences for Europe are grim. Europe is looking at a serious energy shortfall, which it will only be able to make up by buying energy at a much higher price.

    So far from Russia being dependent on Europe as its energy customer, it is Europe which has antagonised, probably irreparably, its key economic partner and energy supplier. Through the arrangements with China, Turkey and Iran, Russia has dealt a devastating blow to the energy future of the EU. In a few years the Europeans will discover that moralising and bluff comes with a price. By cancelling South Stream, Russia has imposed upon Europe the most effective of all the sanctions we have seen this year.

    The map shows how the Ukraine unrest has limited the winter gas supplies for Europe, and how Bulgaria’s blockage is affecting the alternative route across the Black Sea. Agreement with Turkey could keep Europe warm if built in time.

    Australia will disgrace itself in Lima, just as it did in Kyoto

    In the 1990s, Australia joined with Saudi Arabia in throwing road blocks to the Kyoto Protocol. Australia’s recalcitrance was “rewarded” then because the world was keen to get any sort of treaty, and thus it gave Australia the so called “Australia clause” — which allowed it to increase emissions rather than cut them. So when the Abbott government crows about Australia being one of the few countries that actually met its Kyoto targets, it means nothing. And even less on the international stage.

    Now, as talks resume in Lima with the best chance of an agreement in a generation Australia is once again an outlier. And it can expect further “bollockings” in the months to come, particularly as the moves to seal a deal in Paris intensify. The Chinese were reportedly stunned that Australia did not want the environment and environmental goods  included in the free trade agreement just negotiated. No other country has insisted on that.

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/12/01/australia-will-disgrace-itself-in-lima-just-as-it-did-in-kyoto/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

    At Home and Abroad, UN Report Details Abysmal US Record of Abuse

    An official report by the United Nations Committee Against Torture found that the US has a long way to go if it wants to earn its claimed position as a leader in human rights.The committee slammed the US for its domestic policies such as prolonged solitary confinement; botched state executions; heavy-handed and discriminatory policing practices in the nation’s cities; the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system; and serious problems with its immigration enforcement policies.

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/11/29/home-and-abroad-un-report-details-abysmal-us-record-abuse

    Saudis risk playing with fire in shale-price showdown as crude crashes

    Saudi Arabia and the core Opec states are taking an immense political gamble by letting crude oil prices crash to $66 a barrel, if their aim is to shake out the weakest shale producers in the US. A deep slump in prices might equally heighten geostrategic turmoil across the broader Middle East and boomerang against the Gulf’s petro-sheikhdoms before it inflicts a knock-out blow on US rivals.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/oilprices/11263851/Saudis-risk-playing-with-fire-in-shale-price-showdown-as-crude-crashes.html

    and

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-01/can-the-us-fracking-boom-survive-with-oil-65-per-barrel

    MH17 Witnesses Tell BBC They Saw Ukrainian Jet. 

    Shortly after the tragedy, a BBC Russian correspondent interviewed numerous eyewitnesses who described seeing a second aircraft in the sky moments before MH17’s fatal crash. The BBC pulled the report. Why?

    http://russia-insider.com/en/military_media_watch/2014/11/12/11-48-09am/mh17_witnesses_tell_bbc_they_saw_ukrainian_jet_bbc

    In Canada, More Jobs in Green Energy than Tar Sands

    A 37 percent employment increase and a cumulative investment of $25 billion in the green energy sector over the past five years has expanded the energy-generating capacity of Canada’s wind, solar, run-of-river hydropower and biomass plants by 93 percent since 2009. The sale of electric vehicle has doubled between 2012 and 2013. The global clean energy revolution isn’t a future scenario. It is underway right now,

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/02/canada-more-jobs-green-energy-tar-sands

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  • Some stood against GET-UP

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    Erin – GetUp!
    7:09 PM (2 minutes ago)
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    “Scott Morrison is now the most powerful person in the Australian government. The passage of the migration and maritime powers legislation amendment (resolving the asylum legacy caseload) bill 2014 has given the immigration minister, while he holds that job, unprecedented, unchallengeable, and secret powers to control the lives of asylum seekers.” – Ben Doherty for The Guardian 1

    Dear NEVILLE,

    The very early hours of this morning were some of the darkest in Australian political history.

    Just a little before 1am, the Migration and Maritime Powers Bill passed by one vote, with Senator Ricky Muir finally caving to some of the most intense and despicable emotional blackmail that the Parliament has witnessed.

    He was visibly anguished, saying “I am forced into a corner where I have to decide between a bad decision and a worse decision – a position I would not wish on my worst enemies.”

    It’s difficult to blame Senator Muir for his decision once you learn just how Minister Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott emotionally blackmailed him into giving his support.

    Minister Morrison, in a political move that must go down in history as one of the most despicable abuses of power in Australian history, quite literally used desperate kids in detention as human hostages. It’s a story that’s so disgusting, so emotionally manipulative, that it’s hard to believe: it is being reported that our Immigration Minister actually used the children he had been keeping locked up, having them call Senator Ricky Muir and beg him to support the Bill and set them free.2

    As Refugee Council of Australia’s Phil Glendenning said on ABC News today, the choice some of these Senators faced was essentially “Sophie’s Choice” in action.

    There were some outcomes that are definitely a step in the right direction, and they were the result of the public and political pressure GetUp members helped bring to bear – a promise to increase humanitarian intake to nearly 18,750 and releasing children from detention on Christmas Island. But those “sweeteners” came at quite a cost.

    It takes a brave politician to stand up against the tactics we saw used last night – tactics that Senator Xenophon and the Palmer United Party both inexplicably folded to and then celebrated – but in situations like this it’s really important that we let our deserving leaders know we’ve got their backs. The Senators who stood up in the face of intense dirty lobbying and appealed to their opponents’ better sides through powerful statements and admirable courage deserve our thanks. That’s why we’re sending thank you cards to all the senators who voted against the bill – this battle may have been lost but the fight isn’t over, and we must help them stand their ground.

    Will you sign the thank you card we’re sending to all senators who voted against this bill? https://www.getup.org.au/thanks-senators

    The children Minister Morrison used as political pawns in his power play are children who, the evidence shows, have been victims of sexual and physical abuse. They’ve been languishing in horrendous conditions for over 15 months. They’re desperate to be free – and Scott Morrison knew it. In fact, instead of using them as bargaining chips, he could have released them at any time. Same goes for raising humanitarian intake and giving people on bridging visas working rights. But he was waiting for this moment so he could emotionally blackmail some well intentioned Senators, and make them feel they had no choice.

    As Jacqui Lambie said: “These kids have been in there for 15 months and you want a pat on the back? You’ve got to be kidding yourselves.”

    It’s a terrible story. A shocking abuse of power. A Bill that should never have passed, and almost didn’t but for Morrison’s dirty tactics. But there’s hope — and it’s our movement that is going to be there to take this fight to wherever it needs to go until there is justice for asylum seekers and refugees in Australia.

    We’re still waiting for all of the amendments to be made public and for the legal and real-life scenarios for refugees to become more clear, but in the meantime, even before an in-depth analysis is done, some things are already clear: this Bill gives unprecedented, unbelievable and undeserved power to Minister Morrison, which is exactly what he was bargaining for.

    The downright abhorrent way in which the lobbying for this Bill was handled by some of our most senior Government officials makes it difficult to find any silver linings. But there are some, and in the interest of fairness and accuracy we have detailed some of the good, bad and the ugly at the bottom of this page.

    We’re not going to sugar-coat what happened last night. It was ugly. But our movement has been lighting the dark throughout this entire year – turning out in our thousands, providing hope when it seemed lost, finding innovative, creative and inclusive ways to campaign for small advances during difficult times — like journalists funded to let them tell the truth, vigils attended by over 20,000 people, thousands of calls to Senators and MPs, petition deliveries at electorate offices, and just this week, a petition of over 100,000 delivered directly to the Senate.

    And we’re not going anywhere. Already more than 4500 GetUp members have made their New Year’s resolutions and pledges to take the fight into the new year for a better way forward on asylum seekers. If you haven’t made yours yet, you can here: www.getup.org.au/take-action

    With hope for a better way forward,
    Erin, Alycia, Kelsey, Sally and Aurora for the GetUp team

    PS – It’s not just politicians who played this dirty game. It’s worth mentioning that Paris Aristotle — the man behind advocating for the “no advantage” law, and who shares some responsibility for the 30,000 “legacy caseload” — was reportedly working in cahoots with the Coalition, advocating for the passage of this Bill too.

    PPS – A new video3 released today by the Maurice Blackburn law firm details one of the more depressing aspects of this week’s news: as early as tomorrow, 44 children, including 25 babies born here in Australia, will be flown to Nauru to suffer offshore – out of sight, out of mind. We will be fighting for those children in the coming weeks, as we work with partner groups to provide you with as many tangible, effective, creative and helpful ways to support refugees and asylum seekers as possible. Watch this space for our exciting next efforts, and stay tuned for a powerful video soon.

  • Tony Burke via sendgrid.info

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    #5and5

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    Tony Burke via sendgrid.info 
    5:24 PM (18 minutes ago)
    to me
    .

    Neville, Last week Tony Abbott wanted to scrape a few barnacles off the ship of state. This week he wanted to try and turn the whole ship around – things didn’t quite go as planned.

    BEST:

    1. What a year for the Government. Broken promises as far as the eye can see, no Assistant Treasurer for nine months, a Defence Minister on the chopping block and no clear answer to who will be Prime Minister at the next election. None of these things are good, but Bill’s speech summing up the year is definitely the best moment of the week.
    2. The week began with Christopher Pyne and the Government telling anyone who would listen, the big victory in the final sitting week of Parliament for the year would be passing its unfair Higher Education changes and $100,000 degrees. Well, they tried and they failed.
    3. Joe Hockey’s mini-Budget comes out soon. On Thursday the Treasurer, for now, tried to claw back some of his lost economic credibility in a speech to Parliament. Chris Bowen fired back saying Labor will never accept the false premise that Governments can choose either growth or fairness.
    4. On Thursday, just as we were all walking in to Question Time, Terri Butler stood up and tore the government apart for its cuts to education. It’s only 90 seconds to watch, but will be felt by the Government for a very long time.
    5. After the Senate Crossbench complained that Christopher Pyne wouldn’t stop texting and begging for their vote on Higher Education, Labor decided to give people the chance to text back. We set up a text only line where all messages get passed on to Christopher Pyne. Well, nearly all, we have had to censor a couple. More than 6,000 people have already texted him on 0477 333 555.

    WORST:

    1. Last week was the worst week in the Abbott Government’s history, so far. On Monday Tony Abbott tried to hit refresh by holding a 45-minute press conference. So what’s he changing? Nothing.
    2. In the same press conference on Monday, in his first answers talking about the change of Government in Victoria, Tony Abbott made an appeal to Labor Premier Daniel Andrews – what was the appeal? For Premier Andrews to break an election promise.
    3. We’d be a better country if books like this weren’t required. The “Little Book of Lies” goes through, policy by policy, Tony Abbott’s year of broken promises. There are a lot.
    4. The cuts to Australia’s foreign aid budget continue, with Julie Bishop claiming ‘if the Government keeps cutting, it won’t be the Government’s fault’. It seems like Ministers are starting to wish they were no longer in charge. Click here to add your name to the campaign against foreign aid cuts.
    5. The Liberal MP for Gilmore discovered it’s sometimes best to say nothing this week, when Tanya Plibersek referred to 97% of scientists agreeing on the connection between human activity and climate change, Ann Sudmalis interjected “but that’s only climate scientists.” Well she’s right. It’s only 97% of the people who are experts in the field.

    Finally, in my part of Sydney people have always been very generous in wishing me the best for each cultural or religious festival they are celebrating. In the same spirit, I wish you all the very best for Christmas and a happy and safe new year.

    Finally, finally, thanks for the reaction to and support of these emails. It started as a one off, but has become an effective way of keeping you up to date on what happens when Parliament’s on. There’s also a BuzzFeed version of the #5and5, check out this week’s here. Parliament will be back in February next year and I’ll be in touch then.

    Tony

    Lastly, finally, finally, in honour of Tony Abbott who describes the disastrous year of broken promises as a year of achievement, who describes his ministers who are at each other’s throats as being part of a team, the #5and5 song is from the Lego movie: Everything is Awesome!